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**Quick link to register interest in the Raising & Rising leadership retreat for mothers in senior roles in February 2026 – CPO’s and HR professionals please register and we'll be in touch about places for your senior female talent.**

Hello Bright Minds, today you are going to eavesdrop on a coaching conversation with a senior woman who is 2 months back from a 10 month maternity leave who wants to show her leadership team she is committed and wants to progress. She’s the only mother in her part of the business and she feels she’s competing with younger colleagues who can work long hours and have little or no immovable demands on them outside of work.

Our conversation starts by Louise – not her real name - outlining two challenges and we quickly move into stakeholder mapping and working out the perceptions she needs to create in two or three key people’s mind. We end with some thinking about energy management and creating ‘rules’ for when she’ll stay late and which after work drinks are worth going to.

My absolute heartfelt thanks to Little Dish, the award-winning children’s food company, for sponsoring this episode of COMEBACK COACH. Find out more at www.littledish.co.uk.

MORE FOR YOU

• DM Jessica on instagram @comebackcommuk
• Get Caremail (free, every other Sunday at 7am)
• Read Mothers Work! How to Get a Grip on Guilt and Make a Smooth Return to Work by Jessica Chivers.
• Watch five coachees talk about working with us
• Connect us to your HR team - bring the Comeback Community™ employee experience to your workplace

Ask me a Q

Hello Bright Minds, today’s guest has had a squiggly career, graduating as a graphic designer and making it up to creative art director before moving into an MD role and then into entrepreneurship. She’s the co-founder of The Hustle Factory where she and her co-founder are disrupting the outplacement world. Outplacement is when an employer supports an employee to bounce back more quickly after redundancy, something Astrid experienced two years ago when she was made redundant from her role as Head of Brand at a food company. She has two children age 7 and 2 and has very recently relocated from London to Ireland.

Thank you Little Dish for sponsoring this season of COMEBACK COACH. Little Dish make delicious food kids love using wholesome, nutritious ingredients and I’m sure is just the thing Astrid has been wanting to reach for during the chaos of unpacking boxes over the summer. Little Dish champion children’s nutrition and they want to make mealtimes easier for parents. My children, Monty & Artemis, had Little Dish meals when they were toddlers and they’ve recently expanded the range to include meals for bigger kids. Have a look at www.littledish.co.uk.

MORE FOR YOU

• DM Jessica on instagram @comebackcommuk
• Get Caremail (free, every other Sunday at 7am)
• Read Mothers Work! How to Get a Grip on Guilt and Make a Smooth Return to Work by Jessica Chivers.
• Watch five coachees talk about working with us
• Connect us to your HR team - bring the Comeback Community™ employee experience to your workplace

Ask me a Q

Hello Bright Minds,

**Here's the link to register your interest and get early bird access to the exclusive gathering for 12 senior talented professional working mothers who are future Directors, MDs or Partners to help them feel equipped to take the next career step. I'm running this with Anita Cleare in 2026.**

E-mail me: jc@talentkeepers.co.uk to discuss an executive coaching engagement for you or an employee/group of employees.

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Today's episode:

Networking and business development are often on the minds of coachees who are exploring whether/how to get on the Partner track. It's a key area I've been working with a few coachees lately, and whether you're a Partner, an MD, Principal or CEO, if you shy away from networking events or repeatedly come away from the flat, frustrated or feeling it was a waste of time, this episode is for you.

I take us through seven key things my coachees are doing when they go to professional gatherings that lead them to see themselves as effective networkers and able to generate new business and career opportunities.

They are:

1. An optimistic, positive mindset about professional gatherings as a useful tool for growing your network for commercial or career gains.
2. Clarity on both your career goals and your professional/commercial objectives.
3. Having criteria for what gatherings you go to and therefore being selective about what you say yes to.
4. Purpose, planning and preparation before attending a professional gathering.
5. Asking enjoyable questions and listening intently to the answers.
6. Making elegant exits from conversations that aren’t right for you and elegant entrances to the ones that are.
7. Diarised time to follow up after the gathering with a focus on making a helpful difference.

MORE FOR YOU

• DM Jessica on instagram @comebackcommuk
• Get Caremail (free, every other Sunday at 7am)
• Read Mothers Work! How to Get a Grip on Guilt and Make a Smooth Return to Work by Jessica Chivers.
• Watch five coachees talk about working with us
• Connect us to your HR team - bring the Comeback Community™ employee experience to your workplace

Ask me a Q

Hello Bright Minds, I’m trying something new for this season of the podcast and that’s to bring you a couple of expert voices on topics that are coming up in coaching conversations with the people I, and my colleagues, are coaching. Today I am bringing you a conversation with chartered psychologist Nicola Jane Hobbs who is the author of a new book, The Relaxed Woman: Reclaim Rest and Live an Empowered, Joy-Filled Life.

The "GUTS" in the title is a new theory of stress, which I hadn't come across before: Generalised Unsafety Theory of Stress. Nicola talked me through this which I found fascinating.

Nicola Jane Hobbs is a chartered psychologist specialising in the psychology of rest. She holds a master’s degree in sport and exercise psychology and has over a decade of experience supporting women’s health and well- being through yoga, meditation and therapeutic practice. She is the founder of The Relaxed Woman, a community devoted to supporting women to recover from stress and burnout through coaching and workshops. Nicola lives in Brighton, UK with her partner, Justin and their son, Huxley.

This episode is sponsored by Little Dish, the wholesome children’s food brand which is on a mission to make the healthiest, tastiest food for kids. I am so happy to have their partnership because they want to make the lives of parents easier, which is something that completely aligns with me and my work with ambitious and often overloaded professionals.

MORE FOR YOU

• DM Jessica on instagram @comebackcommuk
• Get Caremail (free, every other Sunday at 7am)
• Read Mothers Work! How to Get a Grip on Guilt and Make a Smooth Return to Work by Jessica Chivers.
• Watch five coachees talk about working with us
• Connect us to your HR team - bring the Comeback Community™ employee experience to your workplace

Ask me a Q

Hello Bright Minds, you are in for a treat with this first episode of the new season. I am so pleased you’re here and you are about to hear a magnificent tale of grit, perseverance, honesty and so much warmth from my guest Nora Prida-Bay from Jupiter Asset Management. She had an 8-year career break and it took her 118 interviews to land a job back in banking. You are going to get the inside track on the way she approached job-hunting and how she kept going in the face of all those rejections.

I think Nora is one in a million and you can connect on Instagram @secondbecoming as well as LinkedIn. If you want to hear more from people coming back from a career break listen to episodes 25 and 32. And if you’re interested in hearing more from women in finance, I recommend episodes with four of my past coachees:

• Episode 13, Liz talks about rebuilding credibility and getting your head back in gear after maternity leave.
• Episode 41, Pippa reflects on what she gained from coaching and how to pitch for sponsorship by your employer.
• Episode 56, Selina, who’s also now at Jupiter Asset Management talks about interviewing whilst pregnant and holding a Board position outside your day job.
• Episode 67, Divya talks about how and why she studied on maternity leave and what its like to have an incessant need to achieve.

MORE FOR YOU

• DM Jessica on instagram @comebackcommuk
• Get Caremail (free, every other Sunday at 7am)
• Read Mothers Work! How to Get a Grip on Guilt and Make a Smooth Return to Work by Jessica Chivers.
• Watch five coachees talk about working with us
• Connect us to your HR team - bring the Comeback Community™ employee experience to your workplace

Ask me a Q

Hello Bright Minds, I have a completely wonderful powerhouse for you today who returned from maternity leave eight months ago. Her dream job came up whilst she was away so she decided to return six months early and on day two of her comeback there was a wholescale restructure of the entire business which changed everything. She’s just returned from a company celebration trip to Miami in recognition of her being one of the business’ peak performers and I think you’re going to love her. She had a brutal birthing experience which left her in awful shape mentally and physically so to see and hear her glowing now is an absolute joy. You’re about to listen to Lucy Watkins, Head of Productivity, Programs & Enablement at Salesforce.

REFERENCES FROM OUR CONVERSATION

• Lucy Watkins on LinkedIn
• Lucy's playbook
• Tim Ferris podcast episode I referenced
• Therapeutic journaling podcast episode
• Lucy's meditation coach
• The PT Lucy worked with

MORE FOR YOU

• DM Jessica on instagram @comebackcommuk
• Get Caremail (free, every other Sunday at 7am)
• Read Mothers Work! How to Get a Grip on Guilt and Make a Smooth Return to Work by Jessica Chivers.
• Watch five coachees talk about working with us
• Connect us to your HR team - bring the Comeback Community™ employee experience to your workplace

Ask me a Q

Hello Bright Minds, my guest coachee today is Emilia, which isn’t her real name. She’s been an avid listener of the podcast and got in touch about having a coaching session to support her in making a lateral move in a large multinational healthcare company. Not long after we arranged to speak she e-mailed to say her line manager was going to be leaving and could we talk about how she navigates shifting from peer to boss in her current team on an interim boss.

There was so much ground we could have covered and the 45 minutes whizzed by. Emilia has got several significant professional transitions running in parallel which could be overwhelming if she expects too much of herself at once. She’s dealing with the fallout from an authoritarian boss; she’s navigating moving from being a peer to being the boss, all the time knowing it might be temporary; she’s also needing to be considered about how she enters her new peer group and lastly she’s attempting to limit the impact the new role will have on her family. It’s a lot of effort, a lot of thinking and all on top of delivering the things she previously delivered – with a smaller team. If I were the HR Business Partner of Emilia’s part of the business I would be talking to her about sponsoring executive coaching to support her over the next 6-9 months.

As ever I hope you get something useful from eavesdropping on this one time coaching conversation. It’s recorded in one take so what you hear is exactly how the conversation played out.

I referenced an article I wrote titled Promoted into a new peer group? 5 actions to settle quickly.

MORE FOR YOU

• DM Jessica on instagram @comebackcommuk
• Get Caremail (free, every other Sunday at 7am)
• Read Mothers Work! How to Get a Grip on Guilt and Make a Smooth Return to Work by Jessica Chivers.
• Watch five coachees talk about working with us
• Connect us to your HR team - bring the Comeback Community™ employee experience to your workplace

Ask me a Q

Hello Bright Minds, today I’m talking to Danielle Wallington who lives in St Albans, the place I’ve called home for 23 years. Danielle was an events manager who had her flexible working request turned down after maternity leave with her first son. From that setback came her first business “Milk & Fizz” where she used to her events management skills to bring mothers together for a different type of gathering to what was on offer at the time. She’s now the founder of Flock Here – a social networking app that connects women who work from home to places to work from and people to work with. She’s been through some massive setbacks in the business which is why I wanted to bring you this conversation. Self-employment isn’t an easy choice and it’s not for everyone and this is a chat you’re going to get a lot from if you work for yourself and have small children or if you’re wondering about self-employment as an option; if you’re a woman working in events or if you’re needing to hear a tale of grit to boost your own motivation.

If you’re a long time listener you’ll know that COMEBACK COACH is part of a broader package of support: the Comeback Community employee experience. It’s a blend of online resources, coaching, live expert Q&As, career development tools and line manager support that we deliver in many large and small organisations that who want to support their returning colleagues and get them feeling comfortable back in their roles as smoothly and swiftly as possible. Find out more and help us start a conversation with your HR team at www.comebackcommunity.co.uk/introduce.

REFERENCES

Flock Here

Danielle on LinkedIn

Kings Global Institute for Women’s Leadership events

Gender differences in the association between unpaid labour and mental health in employed adults: a systematic review

How I built this podcast with Guy Raz

MORE FOR YOU

• DM Jessica on instagram @comebackcommuk
• Get Caremail (free, every other Sunday at 7am)
• Read Mothers Work! How to Get a Grip on Guilt and Make a Smooth Return to Work by Jessica Chivers.
• Watch five coachees talk about working with us
• Connect us to your HR team - bring the Comeback Community™ employee experience to your workplace